Surface tolerant technology solves maintenance dilemma

In addition, as the application area was highly contaminated with oil, the repair method needed to be compatible with this environment.

The supplier recycles millions of liters of transformer oil every year. This process works by extracting the moisture from recycled oil by shutting the tanks off from the atmosphere. The tanks are then connected to silica gel tanks to remove the moisture. As a result of this repeated process, several areas located at the seams of the steel tanks were beginning to corrode. 

Belzona 1212 was chosen to bond steel plates to the damaged areas followed by a protective coating using Belzona 5831 (ST-Barrier). Belzona 1212 is said to provide excellent, long-term corrosion resistance and to achieve this even when applied to oil contaminated surfaces where grit blasting is not possible. The product provides a rapid cure to ensure minimal downtime. Belzona 5831 was used to coat the repaired area; this surface tolerant epoxy coating is designed for the protection of oil- contaminated surfaces. 

The application was carried out by Belzona Technosol, Belzona’s application services division. Once the leaks were stemmed, the area was then cleaned and roughened to prepare the surface for the Belzona systems. Belzona 1212 was used to bond pre-manufactured steel plates onto the damaged areas. This was done by firstly applying a thin film of the epoxy system onto the prepared substrate, pushing the material well into the profile.

Osian Jones, Belzona field sales engineer said: "If the oil supplier had chosen to use welding as the repair method, this could have taken weeks to complete, leading to big problems in terms of trying to stop moisture entering the tanks. The Belzona application was completed in just over two days without the tanks being taken offline. This ensured moisture ingress would not occur and allowed the plant to continue as normal with minimal disruption. Furthermore, the supplier was able to avoid a significant amount of capital expenditure as the Belzona repair method could be carried out at a fraction of the cost of welding.”